Contents

After declaring a hiatus in September 2011, Broken Social Scene performed at the Field Trip Arts & Crafts Music Festival in 2013 and a couple of festivals in 2015, the latter of which prompted band members Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Justin Peroff, and Andrew Whiteman to discuss recording new material. "When we're working, we understand that there will be a lot more input, so we leave space in the music as we're writing it," Spearin said. "We would send out invitations for all the usual crew, and say, 'Hey, we're doing this again. Would you be interested in being part of this?'" In the end, 18 musicians were credited on Hug of Thunder. During sessions for the album, Leslie Feist conceived the idea for the title track, her first lead vocal on a Broken Social Scene song since 2006.[3] Drew explained that the title represents "exactly who we are. That is our show. We’re trying to create that hug of thunder. That sound. That embrace amongst the chaos."[4]

Hug of Thunder received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 28 reviews.[5]